The exchange between Stephens, a Monument Republican, and Rep. Jack Pommer, a Boulder Democrat, came as the two tangled over House Bill 1193, which would repeal the tax exemption for out-of-state retailers.

She wanted Pommer to explain the Senate amendments to the bill, and asked several times because she didn’t believe he had answered her questions.

“If you don’t understand the bill I would suggest you read it again. I think it is pretty self explanatory,” Pommer said. “If you don’t understand it, I suggest you ask for help. But I’m not here to do remedial reading.”

Update: I posted this as news was developing. My initial post wasn’t at all clear that only the $500 million raid is off the table. Another bill, SB 281, continues to move forward. Should it succeed, it would put Pinnacol under state control, and require an audit and review of the company.

It was bad enough that college students were duped by Democrats into thinking that Pinnacol, which has nothing to do with funding higher education, was risking their education.

Yesterday, state Rep. Jack Pommer got so worked up he said he considered it fair game to compare Colorado’s guaranteed – and successful – worker’s compensation insurer with AIG, the failed massive insurance firm that has helped plunge the world into a recession with its reckless mismanagement.

That’s quite a trick, considering it violates logic, no matter which side of the state’s takeover attempt of Pinnacol Assurance you’re on.

“I think we’ve somehow created this entity where you can do pretty much whatever you want,” Pommer, the Boulder Democrat, said yesterday in his role as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. (And “appropriations” in this context has taken on surreal new meaning for those of us who opposed the would-be $500 million raid of the quasi-governmental entity.)

“It’s almost like we’ve created an AIG, but there’s no oversight in terms of shareholders,” Pommer said.

Let’s take this apart.

Pinnacol is overseen by a board of directors appointed by the governor. So, first off, we have oversight responsible to the taxpayers and voters of Colorado.

Which is clearly exemplified by this fact. Earlier this decade, Pinnacol was struggling. The legislature and then Gov. Bill Owens worked to reform the insurer. The lawmakers gave it a status much like that of a private company and hired a new and (demonstrably) talented chief executive.

The reforms worked. Pinnacol now offers insurance to employers and their employees at one of the lowest average rates in the country. The company even has returned money, in the form of dividends, to its policyholders to the tune of nearly $300 million in the last few years.

By policyholders, we mean 1.5 million men and women working for 58,000 employers. That’s real-life human beings, Mr. Pommer. Lower costs for worker’s comp means better wages and benefits. (Which is kind of cool and not really nefarious – at all.)

Pinnacol’s success came despite the fact that the insurer is required by the state to offer worker’s compensation insurance even to the riskiest employers – those who can’t afford it or who would never win policies from private insurers. Companies like construction and drilling and mining – dangerous jobs many insurance concerns would avoid. But jobs vital to our economy.

Yes, the state gives Pinnacol tax-exempt status to help it absorb that risk; but the state is in no way obligated to bail out Pinnacol should the insurer fail.

Now. AIG, before the bailouts, was a its own company. It peddled in its newfangled credit-default swaps and lost dramatically. After the government stepped in, Congress allowed the company to pay bonuses to the financial wizards who created the mess to remain through the cleanup.

Congress had oversight, but squandered it in its mad dash to pass the $787 billion so-called stimulus bill no one even had a chance to read.

So what is it exactly that Pommer is saying? How is Pinnacol like AIG? How is it even just a little like AIG?

The answer is: Not even a little.

Some of the Democrats under the Gold Dome also condemned Pinnacol for salaries for nine top executives that range from $168,000 a year to just under $448,813 for the new CEO. They also do their business in a pricey building.

If Coloradans think that’s too much money (and my colleagues remind me that several officials at the University of Colorado, which Pommer is trying to spare from cuts, are paid far more), Pinnacol’s governor-appointed board presumably could trim the compensation. If the building’s too nice, the board could move them and sell the place.

But that’s another matter, and it has little to do with robbing money paid by working men and women from a company that protects them and their families if they are injured or worse on the job.

Pinnacol had initially expressed a desire to do something to help the legislature, but that collapsed soon enough in this poisoned atmosphere.

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, who sponsored one of the takeover bills, said yesterday, “Let me be very clear. I’m not interested in a deal.”

If Pommer et al wish to take over Pinnacol, that’s one thing. But to insult them with illogical comparisons is quite another.

The lack of reasoned debate and civility in this matter is truly regrettable, and I suspect the bad blood already has come back to haunt lawmakers, and part of the reason this raid has collapsed.

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.